Gaming with purpose : Heuristic understanding of ubiquitous game development and design for human computation

The emerging growth of digital gaming has resulted in wide audiences of players. These players are capable of solving difficult problems through human computation games while ubiquitous gaming provides play anywhere opportunities to solve those problems. This chapter outlines characteristics of human computation games and ubiquitous games in a variety of disciplines, describing they key components of such solutions and articulating their distinguishing characteristics from other types of entertainment software. The focus is on entertainment software design theory as applied to human computation games. It outlines the fundamental characteristics of such games and offers approaches to applying human computation games to promote player engagement and adopt application. Readers will learn how ubiquitous gaming and human computation can be combined to address the simplest educational goals through the most complicated problems in the sciences. A brief structural analysis of human computation games is provided. It concludes with a discussion of the potential of persuasive play and the rhetoric of gameplay in the coupling of human computation games with ubiquitous gaming.